Community Advisory Board_old

Renson Anjere, Community Equity Advocate

Renson Anjere works as a Senior Territory Manager for Minnesota and South Dakota for a national Insurance Company. Renson is an active member of his community.  Presently, he serves as a vice chair of the board of Seven Hills Preparatory Academy, a public charter school with campuses in Bloomington and Richfield Minnesota. He is an active member of the Association of Kenyans in America, MN (AKIA, MN Inc.). Along with other members of the association, he championed efforts leading to the formation of a self-funded benevolent fund program that caters for its members in their times of bereavement and distress, besides fostering community engagement and cultural relations among the members. Renson is also the vice chair of the board of Good in the ‘Hood, a nonprofit organization that serves the community through a variety of programs and provides hot meals, groceries, and more to those in need. 

In his equity work, Renson is passionate about improving awareness and increasing utilization of various insurance products as a risk management tool in his community. Minority communities have a disadvantage when health, property and casualty, life, business, or disability insurance are concerned. Many lack insurance and those that do, tend to have inadequate coverage due lack of knowledge and guidance which exposes them to unlimited financial risks and diminishes their financial mobility.  

Renson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in both Management and Economics from Hamline University. He is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree.

Kirk Crow Shoe, MN Tribal Nations Liaison, DEED

Kirk Crow Shoe is from the Piikuni band of the Blackfoot Nation located in Southern Alberta, Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Community Studies and has served the Indian community in both the States and Canada most of his career. He has been a tireless advocate with a proven track record serving the needs of Native communities.

Kirk has held multiple roles at DEED in the Commissioner’s office, Employment & Training and Business Community Development Divisions. Most recently, serving as a liaison between the eleven MN Tribal Nations and DEED’s Leadership.

Anisa Hajimumin, Assistant Commissioner for Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, DEED

Anisa Hajimumin is the new Assistant Commissioner for Immigrants and Refugee Affairs at Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. After founding and leading two businesses focused on providing technical and strategic support to entrepreneurs from communities of color and immigrants and refugees, Hajimumin returned to Somalia from 2014-2017, where she served as the Minister of Women, Development and Family Affairs in the Puntland region. During her ministerial service, she established a social protection framework for women and children, directed a program to prevent human trafficking, raised and distributed funds for displaced families, increased women’s political participation, oversaw the building of a center to serve people with disabilities, advocated and helped pass passage of a bill (the first ever in Somalia) to prosecute sexual offenders.

Under her leadership, Somalia was the first African country to sign on to the campaign to end female genital mutilation. She has extensive experience collaborating with local, state, national and international agencies and government entities to move policies forward. Hajimumin immigrated to Minnesota in 1996 and holds a Master of Public Administration from Hamline University in St. Paul and a Bachelor of Arts in Gender Studies with a minor in creative writing from Metropolitan State University in St. Paul.

Lauren Hunter, Director of Diversity Recruitment and Retention, DHS

Lauren Hunter is the Director of Diversity Recruitment and Retention at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the State’s largest government agency providing services intended to help people live as independently as possible.  In this role, Lauren oversees a comprehensive recruitment and retention strategy that focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I). This includes managing partnerships with internal and external constituents; establishing relationships with diverse organizations; managing the agency’s presence at career fairs working to ensure a culture of inclusion and belonging.

Prior to joining DHS, Lauren worked in talent acquisition for a variety of industries, including retail, manufacturing, healthcare and nonprofit. Her experience includes developing comprehensive recruitment plans and strategies to reach diverse candidates, creating tools to measure effectiveness of these strategies, and managing the integration of diversity in full-cycle recruitment and retention initiatives.

An Indiana native, Lauren earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Indiana University-Bloomington and a Masters of Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University, specializing in Human Resources Management. Lauren is also a Certified Diversity Professional through the Institute for Diversity Certification (IDC).

Lauren is an active community leader, serving as the Board Chair of the University YMCA and a member of the Ramsey County Workforce Innovation Board. Lauren was selected as a 2020 Honoree in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal for Women in Business.

Rev. Dr. Francis O.S. Tabla, Senior Pastor, Ebenezer Community Church

Rev. Dr. Francis Tabla is a native of Liberia, West Africa. In 2000, Dr. Tabla and his wife, Christine, started Ebenezer Community Church (ECC), one of the largest immigrant churches in Minnesota. Over the past 22 years ECC has grown into a vibrant congregation with over 700 members. A place of hope, the church supports the community in various ways. During the pandemic, ECC hosted multiple health education events, provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), held food drives, served as a vaccination site for the community, etc.

Dr. Tabla holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Master of Divinity degree from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University, a Bachelor of Theology degree from the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Diploma in Electronics from the Booker Washington Institute in Kakata, Liberia.

Dr. Tabla is currently the African Outreach Coordinator of Christians United for Israel and formerly served as Pastor of the Grace Baptist Church in Barnesville, Liberia and previously taught at the Monrovia Bible Training Center and the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Tabla has been featured in numerous articles and newspapers and is the author of My Golden Rule (How Men Should Treat Women) and SCRAP Racism (The Church’s Response to Racism). Dr. Tabla loves to empower people to fulfill their destiny. He loves to teach, sing, play the guitar, write, and travel.